


Some People Should Not Work With Children

by AllThingsGeeky



Series: Spidey Sickfics [6]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bullying, Sick Peter Parker, Sickfic, Sickness, Tony Stark acting as Peter Parker’s parental figure, Tony to the rescue once again, Vomit, Vomiting, emeto, irondad and spideyson, minor ED mention, minor alcohol addiction mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:28:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26257918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllThingsGeeky/pseuds/AllThingsGeeky
Summary: With May at work and not answering, poor Peter’s stuck in school feeling awful. But when the School Nurse has to call his other contact, she’s less than co-operative...
Series: Spidey Sickfics [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1908067
Comments: 57
Kudos: 521





	1. Making Contact

“Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Stark may I borrow you for a moment?” Pepper said, her voice resounding around the now quiet boardroom after she knocked politely at the door. 

All eyes fell on Tony, waiting for his reaction- to which he immediately excused himself with a courteous nod to his esteemed employees. For her to be interrupting the meeting Tony knew it must be important, so he had no qualms dropping his serious boss act when stepping out into the hall. “Wussup?”

“Happy’s on the phone.” Pepper said quickly, her voice calm but her eyes were filled with concern as she held out the phone. 

Tony’s brows furrowed. “Why didn’t he just call me?”

“Because you were in a meeting.” She said, having asked that question herself and paraphrasing. 

“Yeah and for him to need to call me at all means it’s important and the only important thing I have him do is watch my kid-“ Tony spoke loudly, knowing full well Happy could hear him. He took the phone from Pepper and held it to his ear though he continued to speak directly to her as opposed to the agent on the other line. “Which means he should’ve _called me.”_

“You’re always on my ass about not interrupting unless it’s an emergency.” Happy sighed gruffly. 

He wasn’t wrong, those were Tony’s instructions, but that didn’t exactly clean up the matter or calm the anxiety building in Tony's chest. For Happy to be calling something must be wrong- granted not wrong enough for the agent to call him directly, so maybe it wasn’t life or death but clearly it was worrisome enough for the agent to require his counsel anyway. But considering the current duty bestowed on Happy as a glorified babysitter and knowing Peter the way he did Tony wasn’t sure what was more worrying. “Okay so either this _is_ an emergency or you’re interrupting, which is it Hogan?” 

“I don’t know, that’s why I called Pepper!” Happy snapped, getting wound up by Tony’s tone or maybe he was stressed anyway. “You want me to tell you or not?! I can just leave the kid hanging if that’s what you want-“

“What’s going on?”

“He’s sick.”

“What?” Tony asked confusedly, the anger ebbing from his voice making way for concern. He heard what Happy had said, he just wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Peter didn’t get sick, his mutated immune system and hypermetabolism made sure of that. 

“He just called me. He’s sick and he wants to go home but the school won’t let him without someone signing him out.”

“So sign him out?” Tony frowned, not understanding the extent or nature of the issue but already subconsciously checking his pocket to see if he had his keys or if he’d need to head down to his apartment on the way out of the building. 

“I can’t I’m not on his contact list and May’s at work so she’s not answering.” Happy sighed. “He was really upset on the phone, T.”

“Why didn’t the school call me?” Tony knew for a fact that _he_ was on the boy’s contact list. He’d made sure of that as soon as Peter became his employee let alone when he found out the kid was Spider-Man and he semi-adopted him. The school didn’t know the extent of their relationship, granted, but they knew Tony was heavily involved in the child’s life; besides that shouldn’t matter, logistically if May wasn’t reachable then Tony should’ve been the first point of contact. 

So why the hell was Peter being forced to call Happy instead? 

Happy cleared his throat uncomfortably, obviously predicting his boss’s reaction. “I don’t think they believe him. He said the nurse wouldn’t even try your number.” 

“Right. Okay.” Tony said lowly through gritted teeth, feeling himself run cold with anger though he quickly shook it off. He could ruin someone’s life later, he had to sort his kid out first. Revenge could wait. “Tell the kid to hang tight.” 

“What are you-“ Happy started to inquire, wanting to know if he had to wait for a phone call, if he was still required or just what was happening. 

But Tony had already hung up and walked back into the conference room. “I apologise for any inconvenience but I have an urgent matter to attend to. We’ll have to reconvene at another time.” 

Delivering his short conclusion Tony left without offering a glance at his disgruntled entourage. He could tell the people in attendance were clearly pissed but he didn’t care, he had far more pressing things to worry about. Without a second thought he cleared his schedule for the rest of the day and hopped in his car to go get his kid. 

  
  
  
  
  


Peter had felt sick all morning. He woke up with a headache, feeling weak and shaky; at first he’d put it down to his late night or low blood sugar. But as soon as he tried to rectify that by eating breakfast he knew something was wrong as his stomach turned and immediately tried to reject it. Putting a hand on his chest he could feel heat rising off himself, which was concerning but he wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to do. Okay, well that was a bit of a lie but he didn’t want to inconvenience anyone. 

He knew what he _should do,_ but all of those options meant messing up someone else’s day. If he told May she’d have to stay off of work- not that he needed babying but she always felt obliged too- and she was stressed enough with work and bills piling up. They couldn’t afford for her to take a day off. Then there was the added stress that if he told her he felt ill and she took his temperature, it would likely be a lot higher than it should’ve been and the last thing he needed was being dragged to the hospital. 

To cut out the middleman and get actual medical care he’d have to tell Tony so he could see Bruce but his boss had a really important meeting- like _really important._ All of Tony’s meetings were important but this was the first time Peter had ever seen the man the slightest bit worried over attending one. Usually Tony was as cool as a cucumber about everything, even going as far to be ‘fashionably late’ to keep up his ‘I don’t give a fuck’ persona, but not this time. The man had been preoccupied preparing for weeks. Peter didn’t want to make a fuss, not over something as little as a bug- he’d be fine. He was fifteen after all- and a superhero, he didn’t need to stay off school, he’d be fine by lunch. He didn’t get sick anymore, not badly, his body got rid of viruses and infections super fast. He’d be fine. 

By third period he was positively nauseous. He couldn’t think straight, he’d long since lost where he was supposed to be in the textbook he had open on his desk; now he was just trying to follow the words as they swam off the page. He’d spent his early morning break barely sipping on a bottle of water and avoiding conversation. Ned kept commenting on how ill he looked, so much so the other boy put a hand on his forehead and was about to drag Peter to the nurse. But their teacher saw and intervened. 

“Mr. Parker are you alright?” Mrs Laurence asked, pausing her reading to look Peter up and down as the boy squirmed uncomfortably. His face was flushed a sickly grey and he was visibly sweating.

“Yes ma’am I’m-“ he was cut off by his stomach lurching, audibly gurgling and making a low, echoing sound in the back of his throat. It was loud enough that everyone turned to look at him, a few people in his immediate vicinity scooting their chairs away. Before the bite Peter had a bit of a reputation as being a sickly kid, considering he threw up in class his first week of freshman year. He was always the one to get travel sick of class trips too earning him the name ‘Pukey Parker’ that he’d only just gotten rid off. Sure, ‘Penis’ wasn’t much better but at least it wasn’t a constant reminder of some of his most embarrassing memories. 

Yeah, Mrs. Laurence certainly wasn’t convinced by Peter’s mediocre lying and shook her head; turning to Ned instead and pointing towards Peter’s bag, encouraging him to take it for him. “Leeds, take him to the office.”

“Yes ma’am.” Ned nodded militantly, already scurrying out of his seat and pulling Peter’s backpack over his shoulder. “Come on, P.” 

Peter allowed himself to be led out of the classroom with little argument, purely to make the moment pass quicker and avoid a display in front of his classmates. But as soon as they got out into the hall he started protesting. “I’m fine.”

“Bro no you’re not, what the hells wrong with you?” Ned hissed, when Peter weakly tried to shrug his hand off his shoulder. “I thought you didn’t get sick anymore?”

“Yeah so did I.” Peter murmured before slowing down. He had to stop to lean on the wall for a second when his head started spinning, the long hallway in front of him shifting, making him feel like he was walking at a diagonal. “Maybe it’s just a migraine.”

“A migraine doesn’t give you a fever P, you’re sick.” Ned shook his head, feeling Peter’s forehead with the back of his hand and frowning. “Want me to call my mom?”

“Oh yeah so she can find out about my powers that’s a great idea Ned.” Peter chuckled, though he instantly regretted it as it made his head pound again. 

“You need to go home.” Ned said authoritatively, adorning his big brother voice and promptly pulling Peter towards the nurses office again. 

“I know.” Peter mumbled weakly, allowing Ned to take over dragging him since it was too much effort to move his own feet. He let Ned pull him all the way to the office, Peter keeping his head down the entire time, holding his breath to try and avoid puking but also hoping they wouldn’t be greeted by a certain someone when they got there...

“Mr. Parker. Haven’t seen you in a while.” Clipped a female voice in a short tone; when Ned and Peter came into view of the office window. 

Oh no.

There were two resident nurses at Midtown Tech, both distinctly notorious from one another. One was absolutely lovely; Miss Heebert, a younger woman with a kind round face and brown bobbed hair, was always nice and offered not only medical advice but words of comfort and reassurance too- and then there was the other one. Miss Hilton. And she was horrible. Absolutely horrible. Everyone knew her as such; it was known around the school if you went to the office and you saw a tall, harsh faced woman with blonde hair scraped back into a tight bun and startling pink lipstick you might as well turn around and go back to class. To top it off she had a particular problem with Peter. 

For some unknown reason, she always thought he was faking being sick, though he’d been known to prove her wrong many many times. He assumed it was since he got sick so often in his freshman year, she cane up with the narrative that he was doing it to get out of school; which would’ve been fair if he hadn’t turned up with a fever or a sick bowl every single time he visited the office. She also hated him for the time he proved her wrong after she’d forced him to go and get lunch only for him to come back and puke all over her shoes.

It had been a while since Peter had needed to go to the nurses office (well for being _sick_ anyway, there had been a few..other reasons) so Peter thought maybe, just maybe, she might be a little more lenient. It had almost been a year, maybe she’d forgiven him or let go of her preconceptions. 

Apparently not. As soon as Peter looked up he saw her cold eyes studying him over the rim of her overly expensive, garish glasses. “What’s wrong this time?”

Ned automatically went to answer for him, considering Peter was continuously swallowing back saliva and opening one's mouth when they feel as though they’re about to vomit isn’t a pleasant experience. “He feels sick and he’s got a temperature-“

“Yes, thank you Mr. Leeds but unless his illness has inhibited his ability to speak I’d appreciate it if you let him answer for himself.” Miss Hilton said harshly, making Ned close his mouth with an audible clacking of his teeth. She then turned back to Peter and sneered down at him. “Mr. Parker. I’ll ask again.”

“I-I don’t feel good.” Peter managed to mumble. He couldn’t articulate better than that, but he was sure she could visibly _see_ the symptoms. He knew he had a fever, where Ned’s hand was placed on the small of his back he could feel the sweat rolling off of him and making his t-shirt cling to him. He was also swaying dangerously, had Ned not been there to steady him he might’ve passed out already if the roaring of blood rushing in his ears was any indication. 

But no. Once again, apparently not. She continued to scowl, pursing her lips into a thin line to show her rapidly thinning patience. “Care to elaborate?”

Peter swallowed, trying to will his vocal chords to stay taught and not crumple under the pressure his stomach was putting on them; trying to force them to retract and let him empty his stomach on the linoleum. “I-I have a headache and I’m really h-hot and I feel like I’m gonna throw up.” 

With a sigh and a roll of her eyes she gestured to the door. “Come in, sit down. Edward you can go back to class.” 

She was clearly bothered by Ned’s presence and left no room for argument with her request, but still he hesitated. He didn’t trust Peter to speak up for himself and be forceful about his need to go home but eventually her piercing gaze forced him from the window. 

“Okay..I’ll see you later P, text me. Please.” Ned muttered, obviously super worried as to why his super friend was suddenly ill.

Peter couldn’t bring himself to answer he just nodded, keeping his head cast to the floor as that was the only position that didn’t make him feel violently sick. As soon as Ned was out of view Miss Hilton turned sharply back to Peter, a look of distaste present on her face. 

“Right, you can sit in here till the end of this period and if you don’t feel better I’ll call your aunt.” She sighed and slammed herself down in her desk chair, tapping away at the keyboard to bring up Peter’s contact information (though Peter was surprised she didn’t have May on speed dial at that point). For a brief moment he was relieved, thinking that would be the end of it and he’d get to go home soon without being berated- but as she picked up the phone and pressed it to her ear she glanced back at him. “I thought you’d stopped this Peter, you know she’s a very busy woman. She’s working so hard to take care of you.” 

That..that stung. Everyone knew about his situation; of course the school did, considering Peter was eligible for free school meals due to poverty. And the amount of times May had to come down to the school because he was ill or because the school wanted to sing her praises for how smart Peter was- everyone knew her. Everyone knew how hard she worked to take care of her orphaned nephew, especially after her husband unexpectedly died. But this woman had the audacity not only to insinuate Peter had gone back to his old habits of feigning illness just to get out of school- which he’d never done in the first place- and trying to guilt trip him into going back to class. 

And any other time it would’ve worked. He felt guilty enough about bothering May at work, but if he wasn’t so sure he was about to throw up he wouldn’t have come in the first place. He’d done that so many times, forced himself to go to school while he was ill- hence why he’d earned that lovely nickname. But now he was different- he wasn’t meant to get sick, if he had some kind of virus it was dangerous for him to be in school. If an average human caught a disease that has mutated in his system they could become seriously ill. And besides that, less altruistically- he wanted to go _home._

So he ignored her comment, keeping his eyes to the floor and trying desperately to ignore the strong scent of her perfume that was only making his nausea worse.

He sat there uncomfortably for the next half an hour his stomach churning watching the clock tick by. He thought about messaging Happy, walking out of the school and asking Mr. Stark to clean up the mess after so he didn’t get in trouble. He knew his mentor wouldn’t mind and would likely have a few choice words for the faculty, but he didn’t want to interrupt the man’s plans. He knew Tony had a big meeting that day and he didn’t want to be a bother..but maybe he could just get Happy to pick him up and then Tony could deal with it _later._

No, no the school would probably freak out and have Happy arrested for kidnap or something. They were really big on security measures. If he wanted to go home that way he’d have to let Tony know first he just..he just didn’t want to. It wasn’t that he was worried about Tony not caring, he’d gotten over that. They’d come a long way with the abandonment issues after the Vulture stuff; Tony was so much more attentive and Peter felt secure and safe in his care. That’s why he didn’t want to repay the man by ruining his big meeting all because he had a tummy ache. 

Maybe the nurses' words were getting to him or maybe he was becoming numb to the pain from his fever but he suddenly didn’t want to go home after all. Well he did, he just didn’t want the necessary steps to get there inconveniencing anyone. Especially May and Tony who as the nurse had quite rightly said _worked so hard._

That and he changed his mind when the nurse finally showed an interest in actually assessing him rather than being judgemental. “Okay, it’s almost time to go to your next class, let me take your temperature before you-“

“N-no Wait I-“ He jumped back as soon as she turned to him, making her already sour expression turn even more. Peter already ran hot, his usual body temperature was heightened to almost a fever thanks to his mutation so if he had a fever comparable to what he thought he did, it was well into the hundreds and the last thing he wanted was an ambulance to be called and him go to a hospital then everyone would find out he was Spider-Man. That wasn’t really how he wanted his day to go especially when he was trying so hard not to inconvenience anyone. 

“Why not?” Miss Hilton asked, brows furrowed. For a split second she looked confused before sitting back in her chair with a somewhat smug look on her face. “Hm. You ready to admit you’re fine now?”

As much as Peter wanted to snap, he didn’t. He didn’t have the energy. “I..yeah. Okay.” 

With a sneer she waved him towards the door. “Go back to class.” 

  
  


Ned wasn’t in his next class but MJ was and the second she saw him shuffle in she ran up to him. “Peter what the fuck? You look like shit, Ned said you’d gone home?”

“Nah I’m f-fine.” Peter tried to shrug her off but it was less than convincing. He swallowed hard and checked the time. Tony’s meeting would be about half way done if all went to plan. He just had to make it till the end of lunch then he could ask Happy to take him home. Just one more class and worst case scenario he could spend lunch hauled up in the bathroom getting reacquainted with his breakfast before his mentor came to save him. Or his Aunt. 

MJ, much like everyone else other than Miss Hilton, was less than convinced. She put the back of her hand against his cheek and instantly her frown deepened. 

“You’re burning up. Why did the nurse let you-“ She cut herself off. “Was it Trunchbull?”

“Mhm.” Peter murmured, glad that MJ had deduced the situation for herself as opposed to him being forced to talk more. He was also glad when she nodded understandingly instead of causing a big scene. 

“Okay.” She sighed gently, rubbing his arm comfortingly before leading him to his seat. Much like Ned, she literally had to lead him, as Peter was walking like a zombie barely lifting his feet off the ground. Without leaving room for him to argue (not that he had the energy to) she shrugged his backpack off his shoulders and helped peel off his hoodie; making him shiver when the cold air hit his feverish skin. Once she had him situated she sat down beside him and fished out a bottle of water from her bag; she must’ve just bought it because it was still cold and Peter couldn’t resist, instantly pressing it against his forehead and sighing. MJ smiled a little but it wasn’t enough to wipe the look of worry off of her face. “You want some Tylenol?”

Peter shook his head no, knowing it would be a waste on him. His system would burn through it before he had a chance to feel the benefit. “I just took some.” 

“Okay..” MJ said quietly, for his benefit. 

Peter took advantage of his current setting and laid his head on his arms, crossed on the desk. Their art class was configured of high tables with stools so students had the options to sit or stand during their projects; which Peter had learned from experience also made for the perfect height for naps. Another great thing about the art room was their teacher- Mr. Stevens though he _insisted_ students called him David, much to Peter’s discomfort- was very laxed in his teaching style. Sometimes a little too laxed. He allowed students to allocate their own seating plan (which was both a blessing and a curse) and other than a brief PowerPoint at the beginning of the lesson students were allowed to do pretty much what they wanted. And today all Peter wanted to do was focus on not throwing up so he was happy to halfheartedly listen to the presentation whilst MJ rubbed his back soothingly. 

As much as public displays of affection made him deeply uncomfortable, he was relishing in the comfort; that was until someone piped up from the table behind them. 

“You gonna puke again Penis?” Flash grinned, leaning close enough to Peter to where his stool was teetering dangerously. 

Peter didn’t even bother looking around. He didn’t need to. MJ snarled and kicked his chair, almost sending him hurtling backwards. “Shut up, Eugene.”

David- forever clueless to the various antics going on in his class- just gestured vaguely to the back of the room; reprimanding them in his usual, soft tone of voice that made it sound like more of a suggestion than a strict instruction. He reminded Peter a lot of Steve. “Guys pay attention please, I know you’re all eager to get ready, you’ll get to start with your projects in a minute.” 

Despite the teasing MJ continued to rub Peter’s shoulder; but Flash continued too, only he ramped it up making gagging faces and noises- and his friends started joining in to. They started miming Peter throwing up in front of everyone again which was mortifying and a very real possibility. But he tried to ignore them, tried to ignore the way the back of his throat clenched every time one of Flash’s goons made an overly dramatic gagging sound. He tried to ignore the jokes they were making about Peter having to run to the trash can again like that time in science when they were dissecting lamb hearts- _ugh_ \- oh god why did they have to bring that up? He could practically smell the formaldehyde and- oh _god-_

“If you don’t shut the fuck up im gonna dissect your heart and sprinkle it with glitter for my project.” MJ spat venomously across the tables. Peter wasn’t looking but Flash must’ve made some sort of sarcastic ‘oh yeah I’m so scared’ gesture, because out of the corner of his eye he saw MJ raise her fist and rise from her seat slightly. He also heard the whimper that came from Flash next and thankfully the bully quietened down after that. 

Once she was finished threatening them, her voice turned soft again as she whispered to Peter. “Are you okay?”

“Mhm, I’ll be okay. The waters h-helping.” Peter said as he swallowed, despite not having drank anything yet. For a while he was able to lay motionless on the desk, though it felt as though he was on a moving ship. He almost convinced himself that he was starting to feel a little better- but that very quickly changed. 

Their teacher was saying something about monet when Peter sat up abruptly, putting a hand over his mouth. Before MJ could ask if he was okay Peter’s hand shot up. 

David pointed over to him. “Yes, Peter?” 

“Can I go to the bathroom?” Peter asked rushedly, feeling all eyes on him; mostly because Peter never asked to go to the bathroom during a lesson and their teacher had only moments before allowed another boy to leave. 

“Of course, get the hall pass back from Connor when he gets back and then you can-“

“No sir I’m- im sorry it’s really urgent can I just g-oh.” Peter was cut off by his stomach lurching, though it wasn’t just a noise like before. This time he felt a gush of water flow over his tongue and he quickly covered his mouth again. His teacher's eyes widened and before he could answer verbally he was making wild hand gestures, rushing Peter out of the room. 

“Go on, quickly. And go to the nurse if you need to!” Mr. Stevens called because Peter was already gone, not having waited to be told twice.. 

He sprinted down the hallway and into the bathroom- thankful no one had stepped into his path because he would have completely mowed them down. He burst into a stall, instantly falling to his knees and retching loudly over to bowl for a second before he was panting to catch his breath. 

He waited for the heaving to start, for the churning in his stomach to reach its peak and start bubbling up; but despite the urgency he felt moments before nothing was happening. The deep, heavy pressure was there, making it feel like he’d eaten a years worth of food despite having only a couple bites of toast that morning- but nothing was coming out. And even though vomiting was never a pleasant experience, he wanted to get it over with, for the feeling to go away; so he found himself straining, trying to force himself to retch but all he succeeded in doing was coughing and making all the blood rush to his head. 

He must’ve made a lot of noise in the process because he didn’t hear another person enter the bathroom. 

“Yo are you okay in there?” Came a concerned voice from the other side of the stall. It sounded like a senior; not that he recognised the voice but it was deep and the shadow cast under the door is tall. How embarassing. 

“Y-yeah.” Peter managed to croak out between strangled coughs as just a little bit of bile trickles out of the back of his throat, running over his tongue, the acid taste making him gag. But despite the noise he made nothing substantial came up. He wasn’t rewarded with the gross yes satisfying cascade of liquid he’d been hoping for. Just stringy spit that stuck to the corners of his mouth and hung there grossly for a moment before he spat violently to get them to fall in the bowl. 

“Uhm, do I need to go and get a teacher or something..?”

“No I’m fine, thanks anyway though.” Peter sniffled, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand before coughing again. 

“Uhm..okay..well..I hope you feel better man. Get some water or something.” The guy said, sounding unsure as he quickly exited the room. 

After another five minutes of strangled retching and only mouthfuls of gritty regurgitated toast to show for it, Peter had now resigned himself to the fact that he had to go home. He couldn’t wait until it was more convenient anymore, he just couldn’t take it. He wanted to throw up so badly just to get the feeling to go away and it was enough to make his eyes sting. But glancing at his watch he still wouldn’t be able to reach Tony directly, so he didn’t have a choice. He was gonna have to let the nurse call May at work. 

With a sigh and a groan he managed to drag himself off of the floor, clean himself up a little and slunk out of the bathroom; where MJ was already there waiting for him with his backpack. 

“Are you okay? Did you puke?” She asked as she rushed over to him, wrapping an arm around him when he started leaning again. Peter shook his head no in response to both of those questions. “You’re going home right?”

“I’m gonna try.” He sighed. His stomach felt slightly more settled now but he still felt incredibly dizzy and he was starting to get little pin pricks of black dots in his eyes. Yeah that didn’t seem like a good sign. 

MJ’s expression soured going from worried to angry in a fraction of a second. “Let me come I’ll tell that bitch what for-“

“She’s just doing her job, M.” Peter said gently, patting her arm in an attempt to calm her down but in fact he did the total opposite; just how weakly he was attempting to stop her from causing a fight with the administration compared to his usual valiant efforts was just another indication of how sick he really was. 

And knowing he was too polite and shy to stick up for himself, she wasn’t about to let it slide. “No she’s doing the exact _opposite_ of her job. She is not sending you back to class again Peter, you’re going home _now.”_

“I’ve already texted Tony and May. They’ll make sure she lets me go home, don’t worry okay?” Peter said, knowing that would be the only way she’d back down and avoid going with him. Miss Hilton already hated him, if he unleashed the wrath of Michelle Jones upon her she’d never even entertain the thought of him being genuinely ill again. 

Though she seemed hesitant, MJ relented, giving him a quick peck on the cheek before they parted ways. “Hmm..you text me if there’s any problems.”

“I will.”

“You better.”

  
  


“So you’re back.” Miss Hilton sighed, not even looking away from her screen as Peter shuffled to the window. She rolled back her seat, looking like some kind of Bond villain, as she reached to unlock the door. “Guess I’ll have to call your aunt then huh?”

“Y-yes please.” Peter said weakly. 

She rolled her computer chair back to open the door, with an ear shattering squeal that sent a shooting pain right through Peter’s head. “Sit down, I’ll do it in a minute. Home or work phone?”

“W-work.” 

She made an obnoxious tutting noise like her suspicions had been confirmed and Peter was an awful human being, faking illness whilst his poor aunt was at work; when in reality that was the furthest thing from the truth. But despite her obvious grievances, Peter watched as she tapped May’s number into the phone and dialled. He also heard it ring, once. Twice. Three times. All the way to voicemail. 

Miss Hilton didn’t even bother to leave the traditional ‘Hi this is one of the school nurses from Midtown Tech speaking, I have Peter in my office-‘ messages. She just turned back to him with an almost triumphant look as if to say; ‘your move, kid.’ “She’s not answering, must be busy.”

Peter grimaced. That meant she’d have to try his other contact. The school had never had to ring Tony for anything before and Peter was embarrassed and mortified but it had to be done. He had to go home, he couldn't stomach going back to class and lord knows he couldn’t stand being in that woman’s company for any longer than absolutely necessary. 

At first it was a struggle to get his mouth to open, both out of anxiety and nausea, but he managed to speak up before she started typing away again. “Uhm, can you try my other contact..maybe if- if he’s not busy..?”

She gave him yet another look- though this one wasn’t entirely unwarranted. As long as he’d been at that school he didn’t have another contact (though the other nurse was nice enough to ring Ned’s mom Donna to come and get him this nurse wouldn’t and refused to have another students contact be put on Peter’s file because they weren’t related- even though that wasn’t against the school’s policy, she just deemed it ‘inappropriate’). “What other contact?”

“It should be on there, m-my aunt put in the request forms in September..”

Peter sat nervously glancing over her shoulder as she pulled up his file again, this time scrolling down. As soon as he saw Tony’s name pop up on the screen she stopped scrolling and there was a long, weighted silence. “You’re kidding me right?”

Peter stayed silent. He didn’t know what to say because obviously he wasn’t kidding. 

But maybe he would’ve been better off saying something in response, because the woman’s cheeks pinkend to match her lipstick. “Right, well I’m not putting up with this. It’s one thing wasting everyone’s time pretending to be sick but putting in a fake contact is ridiculous-“

“But I didn’t!” Peter truly didn’t understand how she could say that to a student. He knew she hated him, he knew what she thought but for her to say it in such an outright way was almost unbelievably. “My aunts signature is on there I didn-“ 

“Enough. You’re gonna have to just wait until your aunt can call me back, you’re lucky I don’t get the principle down here to discuss your behaviour.” She snapped, her voice growing harsher, similar to the tone she had used with Ned. She shook her head as though she was disappointed, despite having thought very little of him in the first place apparently this took the cake. “You’re a bright student, Peter, you should know better than that. Forging paperwork.” 

The boy was left in a stunned silence. He could cry. He wanted to cry. Maybe he did cry just a little bit when she turned her back to him once more, resuming her ignoring him routine. He was angry too; how this woman thought he had the power to create a false contact on their schools computer system (which he did thanks to, you know, spy tech but _she_ didn’t know that) was beyond him. Also, why would he want to? When had he ever given her the impression that he was a bad kid who would do something like that? And if he wanted to go _home_ making a fake contact wouldn’t be the best way to do it; especially if that contact was impersonating a celebrity. He didn’t deserve this, he’d never done anything wrong other than throw up one too many times.

He had half a mind to go with his previous plan and just walk out; let his boss deal with the aftermath. But despite that, he still didn’t want to get anyone in trouble. Not even Miss Hilton for letting a student leave the school without authorisation- even if that student had _tried_ to get authorisation- it wasn’t worth it. He felt too awful to try and be defiant anyway, he just wanted to lay down.

“Can I go to the bathroom?”

With a glare Miss Hilton answered. “Leave your bag and come straight back, don’t bother going back to class now. I wanna have a word with your aunt when she eventually gets here.” 

Peter nodded and swallowed when bile rose in his throat. As he stood up the corners of his vision going black for a second and he had to grab the corner of Miss Hilton’s desk to steady himself. All that earned him was a noise of disgust and he quickly left the room before she could say or do anything else. 

By this point he could barely walk, he leant against the lockers the whole way down the hall. He was absolutely drenched in sweat and he could feel his hair sticking to him grossly. He could only imagine what he looked like as he stumbled back into yet another stall- only this time he didn’t bother trying to evacuate his stomach. He did the only thing he could think to do. He called Happy. 

“Yeah.” The man answered gruffly after one ring; his tone the same as it always was though when he heard Peter sniffle on the other end of the line it changed. 

“Uhm, Happy?”

He instantly sensed something was wrong. “What’s wrong kid? You okay?”

“No I’m- I really need to go home but Uhm- the the nurse wont call Mr. Stark and May’s not answering.” 

“Why won’t she call Tony? And what’s wrong- you hurt?”

“I don’t think she believes he’s my actual contact.” Peter hiccuped, ignoring the other question, desperate for the conversation to be over so he could leave already. “Can you come in and vouch for me?”

“Kid, even if I did that I still can’t sign you out, you know that.” He’d gotten away with it once before that day he took Peter to an impromptu meeting, but May had been called and she had been _furious_ when she found out Tony had taken her nephew upstate without consulting her first. She wasn’t even mad about him doing it just that he hadn’t asked first; and she was mad at the school for letting a random man take her son just because he flashed a Stark industries badge. Happy could’ve been anyone and Peter would’ve trusted them too. It had been a sticky situation, so now the school would definitely not let him take Peter without May’s expressed consent. That and after the bruise on his arm he’d received Happy was too scared to either. For a little woman she sure could pack a punch. “And you didn’t answer my question, why do you need to go home?”

Peter swallowed, both his shyness and another mouthful of sick. “I don’t feel good. Like I really really don’t feel good, I haven’t felt sick like this in ages and I- I just wanna go to bed, Happy. I wanna go home.”

Happy cringed sympathetically, heading the emotion in Peter’s voice. “Okay kid, hold on, I’ll call the big boss-“

Peter panicked hearing that. “No don’t he’s- he’s in a meeting I don’t, I don’t know, can’t you just take me home and we’ll deal with the school later?”

“Kid I’m not abducting you.” Happy sighed before he hummed thoughtfully. “..Well, at least not without Tony’s permission first- then May can smack him instead. Lemme see if I can get hold of him, I’ll call Pepper okay? If he’s busy we’ll go from there.”

“O-okay. Thank you.” Peter said defeatedly. He supposed having Pepper assess whether or not it was a good or bad time to be interrupted was better than Happy calling Tony directly. And as guilty as he felt about the meeting he couldn’t help but feel relieved when he got a text a couple minutes later. 

Mr. Hogan: Tony’s gonna sort it. 

Tony’s kid: What does that mean?

Mr. Hogan: I don’t know, but he said he’ll sort it. 

Despite the vague response Peter relaxed. He trusted Tony, he figured the man would call the principle or maybe he’d call the nurse directly. Maybe he’d even find a way to get word to May or send Happy in the collect him anyway. Peter was left wondering but he didn’t think about it too hard, he didn’t have the energy. He barely made it back to the nurses office before he crashed out. He just hoped whatever Tony was going to do he did it quickly. 

However, that being said he didn’t expect it to be within the next ten minutes. And he certainly didn’t expect to be hearing a familiar voice just down the hall. 

As soon as he heard the man clear his throat Peter opened his eyes and saw Tony leaning against the desk; dressed in one of his finest suits and wearing his signature sunglasses. It wasn’t long before Miss Hilton looked up too and it was just a shame she was sitting down otherwise Peter would’ve had the pleasure of watching her faint. 

Tony smiled, slipping off his glasses and tucking them into his top pocket. “Good afternoon ma’am, I hear my kid needs picking up?” 

It was a solid three seconds before Miss Hilton found the wherewithal to respond. She blinked a few times, mouth gaping like a fish as her glasses slid down her nose to reveal wide eyes. “Y-your kid?”

“Yeah. Peter, Peter Parker. Skinny kid, ‘bout yay high, curly hair- sitting in your back room about to throw up because for some reason you refused to call me.” Tony said in a light voice, describing Peter using hand gestures before pointing through the window towards him, still a friendly smile on his face. “Yeah that one- hey bud.”

He lent around the lady to make eye contact with Peter, giving him a wave, whilst Miss Hilton just sat there, absolutely gobsmacked. Had Peter not felt so ill he would’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

“I uh- I didn’t think he was being serious-“ Miss Hilton started to ramble but she cut herself off when Tony's eyes snapped towards her. 

“About what? Me being his contact or the fact that he’s sick? Because anyone with eyes can see he’s clearly about to paint your office a different colour and I’m standing right in front of you. So I guess you were mistaken.” Tony said in the exact same friendly tone he had been using, only now it was laced with sarcastic and spiteful undertones that only Tony could muster so seamlessly. Without a further glance in her direction, or her permission, Tony swung the door to the office open and stepped inside to retrieve his kid; who at this point was grey and maybe even slightly green. “Come on kiddo, let's go home.”

Tony helped Peter up, noting he had to help him quite a bit and part of him hoped he was acting to help their case against the ‘nurse’. He’d managed to shuffle Peter out of the office before the woman piped up again, in a meek voice. “You need to sign the..the release-“

“The form, yeah I’ve got it. Though I don’t see why I should bother, considering I signed forms for you before detailing how you should _call me_ if my kid needs picking up and you failed to do so. Clearly paperwork and legally binding contracts aren’t taken particularly seriously around here.” Tony stated in a clear, calm voice though his dark eyes blazed angrily, letting everyone in the immediate vicinity know that this was merely the calm before the storm and his current demeanour was only for the benefit of the sick child he had to get home. But that look melted away when he turned back to Peter after shoving the crumpled form onto the woman’s desk and turning away. “You got all your stuff?” Peter nodded as much as his stiff neck would allow and Tony smiled gently. “Okay come on then, let’s get you home.”

As Tony led Peter away, they made it about fifteen steps away before Miss Hilton managed to squeak out a strangled; “I’m sorry!” 

“Oh I know you are. Don’t worry, I’ll be back at some point to discuss this matter in depth but unfortunately I have other priorities right now. Like taking care of this child- which was _your job_ that you failed to do.” Tony said, smile still ever present. Still as unnerving to the woman who realised she was most probably out of a job and if not, she’d just made an enemy of one of the most powerful men alive. “See you, later Miss Hilton.” 

Once they were further down the hallway nearing the exit to the parking lot, Tony dropped the facade completely. With no one around to bear witness he had no qualms about being more openly affectionate.“You alright, bub?” 

Peter automatically nodded and Tony automatically ignored his first response anyway knowing he’d say yes regardless of the evidence his eyes were relaying to him. He took the backpack off the boy’s shoulder and Peter didn’t even stop him from doing so telling Tony he _really_ did not feel well. As if he couldn’t see that already. 

“You look like shit.” He sighed, shrugging Peter’s bag onto his shoulder and wrapped his other arm around his; leading him to the car, pausing only to put a hand on his forehead. “Jesus Christ you’re melting, did she even take your temperature?”

Peter shook his head and sniffed. “I was worried it would be too high. Higher than 103 they have to call an ambulance.”

“If you have a fever higher than 103 I’m calling an ambulance.” Tony said, half in jest half seriously. Peter let out a little whine either to say that idea scared him or he just straight up didn’t find that funny. 

Peter managed to sling himself in the car and collapse into the seat, barely managing to keep his eyes open long enough to put his seat belt on. He stayed motionless and silent even as Tony started up the engine, only gripping the side of his seat when he felt the car shift and turn corners as it made his stomach slosh. Though after a while he broke the silence in a shaky voice. “I’m sorry.”

“What for now?” Tony asked though he knew the answer. “Let me guess, interrupting the meeting?” 

“Just lemme say sorry.” Peter huffed grumpily, pressing his face against the cooling glass window. 

“No because it’s stupid.” Tony said automatically, before he remembered who he was talking to. “Not that _you’re_ stupid, but apologising for something that’s completely out of your control is stupid. And I couldn’t care less about that meeting now, they survived without me, whereas _you-“_ Tony punctuated his point by poking him in the side. “-certainly wouldn’t have.”

“I tried to have her call May but she didn’t answer and- the nurse she- She Uhm-“ Peter stammered, and Tony could hear him swallowing after almost every word, clearly struggling to talk.

Tony patted his leg comfortingly, encouraging him to stop talking. “And she didn’t listen to you. I know bud, Happy filled me in you don’t have to talk I know you feel sick. Just relax okay? Everything’s fine.” 

Peter did stop talking for a while, though he still had one last thing to say. “Please don’t get her fired.”

“I’m not going to.” Tony sighed, though when he glanced towards the passenger seat Peter was looking less than convinced. “Don’t look at me like that. Don’t get me wrong I would _love to,_ but I know you’d feel bad and all that wholesome crap. I won’t throw my weight around but I am going to go through all of the usual necessary complaint measures that any other parent or guardian would go through under the circumstances. If the school happen to take more of an interest because of my status that’s on them. Besides, she more than deserves it and I’m sure May will agree.” 

“She’s mean.” Peter sniffled quietly, giving up on trying to argue and trying to focus on the air con blasting him in the face instead. 

“Yes she is.” Tony mumbled sadly. He could save his anger for later (and oh boy would he) right now he just wanted to get his kid home safe and comfortable. “Do you wanna go to May’s or mine kid?”

“Uhm. I don’t mind.” Peter said with a small shrug as Tony approached the turnoff. But as he opened his eyes and his stomach realised once again that they were in a moving vehicle, he quickly changed his mind. “Scratch that, May’s.”

“Why the sudden change?” Tony asked, eyebrows raised. 

“Because I’m not gonna make it to the tower.” Peter muttered, his voice getting tighter and his breath quickening. 

“Do you have to pee?” Tony asked, already glancing for somewhere to stop. He realised he didn’t give the kid the chance to use the bathroom before they left, he just kind of stormed him out of there. 

But that wasn’t the problem and Peter mustered up the courage to say that before his body did it for him. “No I’m gonna throw up.”

“Now?” Of course he meant now Tony, the man shook his head at his own question. Obviously Peter wasn’t telling him an hour in advance (though that would be convenient). He was just a little alarmed to hear that, his eyes widening accordingly. Though Peter looked sick he went from being okay(ish) to actively holding back vomit rather quickly because when Tony looked at him again he saw the boys cheeks puff out for a second before he swallowed. “Oh shit- right okay, hold on. Do I need to pull over?”

Peter desperately wanted to say no but had to say yes. He couldn’t hold it back and he didn’t want to repay Tony for his speedy rescue by running the man’s expensive car. But thankfully Tony stopped in a timely manner. 

The second Tony pulled to the side of the road Peter flung his door open and spat up a mouthful of watery bile onto the tarmac. He did so a couple more times without gagging, but once again despite his stomach _insisting_ it needed to vomit, nothing more was happening. 

Whilst Peter was groaning and hanging out of his door Tony stuck his hazards on and leaned over to help him; just as he did so some asshole had the audacity to honk their horn at him. 

“Yeah?! Well fuck you too asshole- oh it’s Happy.” Tony said calmly after he’d already flipped the agent off. Happy called him two seconds later to see if he was needed. “It’s alright I’ve got him, if you could just get word to May that- yeah. Yeah that’s great thank- What? No I’m not taking it back, Hogan, stop being so sensitive you know I love you really.” Tony shook his head, hanging up and shoving his phone in his pocket. “Sorry kiddo.” 

Peter waved off the man’s apology but that was all he could do. He sat there leaning limply against the door after Tony had undone his seat belt to give him more space to do what he needed to do. After a while Peter stopped spitting, and thought nothing substantial had come up Tony was hopeful that his stomach had settled enough for them to continue home. “You all done?”

“It won’t come up.” Peter shook his head and leaned forward again, this time tasing his hand to his mouth to stick his fingers down his throat and Tony lurched forward to grab him. 

“Pete- hey _no._ Don’t do that.” He said sternly as he tugged the boy’s hand away, earning him a look in return. 

“Why not?”

“Because you could hurt yourself.” Tony shook his head, refraining from the urge to make a comment about taking advice from the bulimic alcoholic. “I know it’s annoying, trust me, just don’t make it happen.” 

Peter groaned and allowed himself to be pulled back into the car, slouching down in his seat; still gripping his stomach. “Can I get some soda then?” 

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” Tony laughed incredulously. Then he had an idea. It was kind of a mean idea but hey, the kid said he wanted to get it up. “How about you try some water first and see if that’ll help? Did you even eat lunch today- you’re probably hungry we could stop at McDonalds-“

Tony was cut off by Peter retching loudly, and this time he was rewarded with the grossly satisfying sound of liquid hitting the pavement- a sizeable amount of liquid he might add. It was like someone had turned on the faucet full blast and Peter hoses down the whole sidewalk next to the car. The kid wasn’t kidding, he really did need to puke, because he managed to promptly empty the entirety of his stomach in around two minutes- which was rather impressive. It made Tony thankful that Peter has asked him to pull over rather than wait until the last second. 

“You alright?” Tony asked gently when Peter managed to sit up and slump back into the car seat. 

“Uh huh.” He murmured, wiping his mouth on his sleeve which made Tony cringe. Somehow that was grosser to him than the puking itself. “I feel better now.”

“Yeah? I bet.” Tony chuckled, his eyebrows raised as he pulled a kleenex out of the glove box and wiped Peter’s face for him; apparently throwing up as violently as he had had wiped him out and now the kid looked like he was about to fall asleep. “Okay. I know you wanna go to May’s kid but I really think we should go home so Bruce can check you out. Is that okay?” 

“Uh huh. Can we watch Star Wars?” Peter mumbled as his eyes closed, looking more content than he had all day. 

“We can watch all the Star Wars you like buddy.” Tony said softly, smoothing the boy’s hair away from his face one last time before starting the car again. He was glad the boy was no longer worried about taking up his time and more interested in watching his favourite comfort franchise. 

He ended up staying on the couch with him all night binge watching the Clone Wars animated series, which Tony had yet to be subjected to so it was a welcome change. They determined Peter’s sickness to be an inner ear infection which was good for two reasons. 1- it wasn’t contagious so Peter wouldn’t have to be quarantined to prevent the spread of a super-sickness that had mutated in his body that would undoubtedly kill his immune compromised mentor (which meant all the cuddles and comfort the kid needed) and 2- some antibiotics and pain relief would do the trick to get him feeling better in no time. 


	2. What You Deserve

Some people shouldn’t work with kids. Especially people who dislike kids. Especially people who dislike kids with additional needs. 

And those people really,  _ really  _ shouldn’t become school nurses. 

After Tony tucked Peter into bed that night (after getting covered in vomit  _ twice  _ and having to sit through not one, not two, but five out of seven seasons of the Clone Wars), he took off his ‘taking care of my kid hat’ and put on his ‘planning someone’s demise hat’; and the rest of the Avengers recognised the look on his face. 

“What’s wrong with you?” Nat asked as she walked into the living room. She knew he was upset because Peter was sick but he didn’t look sad, or tired- he looked murderous. 

“What do you think?” Tony snapped. 

“Hey, I know being puked on ain't fun but you’ve done it enough times. The suit can be dry cleaned.”

“What? No it’s not- Steve didn’t tell you?” Tony asked as he sat there, absolutely seething. 

“Tell me what?” Nat said, wondering what the poor table had done for it to deserve the look he was giving it. She waited for the lasers to shoot from his eyes and bore holes through it the way he was intensely staring, head resting on a clenched fist under his chin. 

“The school nurse didn’t believe he was sick.” Tony eventually muttered, spitting the words as though they tasted sour. 

“How could she not believe he was sick, he was greener than Bruce after you called him a-“

“I know.” Tony cut her off, not wanting to be reminded of that particular instance. He still missed that car. Anyway. “She straight up told him he was lying, then accused him of having forged May’s signature to get me on his contact list. She wouldn’t even try calling me.”

“What a bitch.” Nat said flatly. “So what’re we gonna do about it?”

Tony chuckled thinking she was trying to cheer him up with banter, but when he looked up she looked deadly serious. “What do you mean  _ we?”  _

“Well I assume you’ve got a plan. If not I do.”

“Nat I can’t bail you out again, Nick will castrate me.” Tony rolled his eyes. For once this wasn’t an avengers issue, this was a...guardian issue. He’d already called May and she’d agreed to let him handle it, purely because she didn’t trust herself not to throw hands- so having Nat get involved just with the same promise of violence was not the best idea. As much as Tony would have loved to see it, the rational side of him (and some might say the more sadistic side) would much rather have the woman’s career ruined than her physically harmed. That and he knew Peter would never forgive him if he allowed someone to get hurt on his account, even if the woman was more than deserving. 

“I won’t get caught this time.” Nat frowned. 

Tony gave her a look. “I’ll handle it. Trust me I’ve got a plan, I’ve got it.”

“Just let me know if you need any...reinforcements.” 

  
  
  


“Uh- Principal Adams sir?”

“Yes Kate, what is it?”

“I- uhm- I have a concerned...parent here to see you.”

The principal frowned. It was late in the afternoon, the students would be leaving school soon which meant his real day of work was about to begin. “I’m sorry but I’m due to leave for the PTA meeting in ten minutes. Have them schedule an appointment for tomorrow morning-“

But his secretary cut him off. The usually meek and mild mannered woman paled, shaking her head adamantly. “Sir I really don’t- I really don’t think you ought to do that it’s- you shouldn’t- you need to see them  _ now.”  _

Mr. Adams stared at the woman for a moment, blinking slowly and studying her. For her to be acting so strangely he was suddenly worried if the parent had threatened her or something. He shook his head and continued gathering his various papers off of the desk. “Kate, I’m sorry but I just do not have the time, they will have to wait.”

“Oh but it won’t take a moment.” Another voice joined their conversation, one Mr. Adams recognised though he was sure he hadn’t met them before. When he looked up he just about fell back into his chair. 

Tony turned to the woman whomst he was sharing the doorway with a warm smile. “Thank you Mrs. Blanchard, you’ve been most helpful.” 

“Uh y-you’re welcome Mr. St- Mr.  _ Stark.”  _ The secretary said breathily, the man’s name catching in her throat. She was leaning against the doorframe, staring at him unblinking with a bright blush on her cheeks and a small bashful smile befalling her face. 

But Tony was unfazed, he was more than used to it. “Would you be able to do me one last favour?”

“Anything.” Kate swallowed quickly, just a little too eager to respond to his request. 

“Would you be able to pass a message on to Peter to come and meet me here after class?”

“Yes sir, of course.” Is that She nodded, hugging the door as she shuffled around it closing it behind her. 

“Lovely lady you have there, Mr. Adams. Very attentive.” Tony turned his attention back to the other man in the room, his voice light; but very quickly his expression darkened. “Unlike another member of staff.”

“I’m- I’m sorry?” Mr. Adams squeaked, his brain still trying to catch up. Tony gave him a second to clear his throat and shake himself off, which the man did, straightening his tie as he tried to slip back into his more professional demeanour. “Is that what you’re- you’re concerned about?”

“It is.” Tony said calmly. 

“May I ask which student is- are you Uhm, related to..?”

Tony assumed he would know that already but apparently not. Then he looked at the nameplate and it looked distinctly shiny. The guy looked pretty young to be a principal too. Probably new. Hm. Maybe he should’ve done more digging before he got here but no matter. Fresh meat were often more eager to please. “Peter Parker.”

“Oh Peter.” The man said with familiarity, a smile gracing his face. “The ninth grade boy. Incredibly talented, you must be very proud.”

“I am.” Tony said with a small smile of his own that he didn’t have to force. He was very proud anyway, but for a new principal to know him by name already was quite an achievement. It just went to show how well thought of the boy was at the school, which he fully deserved- what he didn’t deserve was Miss  _ Hilton  _ borderline bullying him when he was fucking. Sick. Tony didn’t feel the need to specify that he wasn’t his biological kin, and the man didn’t ask. “And very protective as you may imagine. Which is why I’m rather concerned about the conduct of the medical staff you have as a part of your current faculty.”

“Please, Mr. Stark.” Mr Adams gestured for Tony to sit down which he did; even though he had waited for the other man’s permission he somehow commanded the whole space. Mr. Adams was painfully aware that  _ he  _ was on Tony’s time as opposed to the other way around despite him being in his office. “What happened? Is Peter alright?” 

“Peter had to be sent home from school last week as he had a severe ear infection. By the time I got him home he had a fever of 104 and luckily I live with a registered physician or I would have had to take him to the emergency room.” Tony explained in the same neutral tone of voice, despite the fact that he was still seething almost a week later. And maybe he was being a  _ little  _ dramatic- but this guy didn’t know that. And neither did Miss Hilton for that matter. Besides, it could’ve easily been that bad had Peter still been a regular child, or the sickly child he’d been a year ago. “But despite his condition, it took Peter contacting one of my members of staff himself in order to be released back into my care.” 

The principal looked shocked and Tony was too, albeit he understood why. He’d initially assumed that the nurse would’ve run straight to the principal to tell him what happened, to get her point of view across first to save her hide; but it seemed instead once she realised Tony hadn’t immediately gone to him himself she’d decided to stay quiet in the hopes that it would blow over. Yeah not a chance lady, you’re just lucky one of the other avengers hadn’t decided to deal with you in the meantime. 

“My goodness, may I ask first, is he alright now?”

Tony nodded curtly, glad to note the man seemed genuinely concerned. “Much better thank you.”

“I’m glad to hear that, but why wasn’t Peter allowed to go home? Were you unable to collect him yourself?” Mr. Adams asked, trying to get a better idea of what had happened. The school had a policy against people not on their contact list taking kids home for obvious reasons, unless there were extenuating circumstances- Happy would’ve been included had Miss Hilton asked him and obtained permission. Tony knew that. He’d spent the last week going over every single one off of the schools policies and rules and loopholes.

“No I was. But I wasn’t contacted by the school directly. In fact I had to be called out of a very important meeting by my fiancé as Peter had been told by a member of your staff that he was faking it. Then she accused him of somehow faking my details and having them added to his contact list.”

“I- I beg your pardon?” The principal’s tone suddenly changed entirely, going from friendly and concerned to angry. His expression slipped too, but only for a moment. “Who said that?”

“Miss Hilton. Apparently she’s had a personal grievance with my child for quite some time due to the fact that he was ill often in his last year.” Tony said, barely keeping the snarl out of his voice. The whole point of coming to the principal first was so that Peter couldn’t get angry with him for throwing his weight around; losing his cool before he had the chance to go about things the ‘right way’ didn’t seem like the best way to keep his promise. “She didn’t just insinuate it either, she directly told him what she thought. She also tried to shame him for bothering his aunt at work.”

“His aunt?” Mr. Adams asked confusedly. 

Tony’s jaw clenched for a moment. For some reason he felt slightly uncomfortable having to add detail to their situation as though Tony being Peter’s second contact would somehow undermine him in some way; though of course that was ludicrous. Whether he was the first, second or seventy fifth person on that list, he still had every right to be called should Peter need someone to pick him up. And he hadn’t been. “She’s his first contact due to my busy work schedule.”

Mr. Adams nodded understandingly, not asking for further details about who had primary custody of the child. “Oh I see. So she did call someone?”

“Yes after sending him back to class once already- only for him to have to bolt out of the classroom to vomit. Mr. Stevens can attest to that.” Tony said, frustration ebbing into his voice ever so slightly. Just because she  _ tried  _ to call  _ one person  _ didn’t mean she’d done her duty; he wanted to make sure she looked as guilty as she truly was. “Unfortunately his aunt was unable to answer the phone. When Miss Hilton didn’t get an answer and Peter  _ politely _ asked her to try his other contact, she ridiculed him before threatening to bring you into the equation. Then she made him sit there for a further half an hour before he built up the courage to contact me himself. And quite frankly I am appalled at her conduct and lack of compassion or care.”

Mr. Adams nodded quickly, sensing Tony had misinterpreted his question as nonchalance. “As am I Mr. Stark. I can only apologise-“

“No what you can do is bring her down here and have  _ her  _ apologise. To me and more importantly Peter.” Tony snapped despite himself, making Mr. Adams jump slightly. 

“Yes. Yes of course.” The man swallowed, reaching for the phone on his desk to call through to his secretary. However before he could do so Tony had to interject. 

“I need to add- I’m under strict instructions not to have her fired.” Tony muttered through slightly gritted teeth before clearing his throat and thankfully Mr. Adams understood what he was hinting at. “But should you launch the appropriate investigation into her misconduct and find that necessary, I’d be happy to attest against her in a disciplinary hearing.”

“Understood.” Mr. Adams nodded after a moment. He pressed the button on the receiver. “Kate, can you have Miss Hilton brought to my office at her next available convenience, please.” Once he saw the look Tony was giving he backtracked slightly. “I-I mean immediately.” 

“Yes sir, I have Peter out here with me too, would you like me to send him in?” Mrs. Blanchard called through. 

Mr. Adams looked towards Tony for an answer before he responded; and the man nodded. “Yes please.”

Tony watched through the window in the office Peter being brought around the corner; he followed behind the woman, his backpack slung over his shoulder and a panicked look on his face. He saw Mrs. Blanchard turn to him, probably to assure him that he wasn’t in trouble but the boy looked nervous nonetheless. Only when Peter saw Tony through the window did his expression brighten slightly- for it then to fall even more. Peter’s face went from panic, to relief then realisation and back to panic. Either Peter realised exactly why he was there or there was something else Tony should be worried about.

“Uh- h-hi Principal Adams, sir. Hey Mr. Stark.” Peter stammered as he entered the room, gently closing the door behind himself. 

The principal smiled kindly, gesturing for Peter to make himself comfortable. “Good afternoon, Peter. Please, sit down.” 

Peter quickly did as he was told and sat down, immediately scooting his chair closer to Tony; though he didn’t look anywhere near comfortable. He looked back and forth warily between the two adults, apprehensively waiting to be addressed; which Tony left to the principal. 

“Do you know why you’re here Peter?” Mr. Adams asked gently, trying to reassure the boy that he wasn’t in any kind of trouble himself. 

“Uhm..kinda?” Peter said unsuredly; though he realised who he was in the company of and tried to correct his use of language. “I mean- no sir, I’m not sure.”

The man paused before choosing a term of address. Peter had called him Mr. Stark, not dad or Tony or any other personal variant so he deemed that the most appropriate. “Mr. Stark informed me there was an incident with the nurse last week? Can you tell me a little about that?”

Peter's face went through several emotions again; at first relief that he hadn’t been caught doing something else (Tony would find out what that something else was later) but then he looked nervous again, like he had hoped Tony would have forgotten about it. Or at the very least dealt with it without bringing him into the equation. “Oh well uh- I-it’s not a big deal it was a- Uhm- communication error-“

“Pete.” Tony said flatly, his tone letting Peter know not to lie. 

Mr. Adams seemed to mirror that sentiment. “I’m afraid it is a big deal Peter, especially since Mr. Stark has taken the time to be here today to have the situation sorted. I too want this sorted immediately- and all I can say is I am so, so sorry you weren’t allowed to go home.”

“It’s okay sir..” Peter mumbled awkwardly. It was strange having the head of his school apologising to him. He’d much rather have forgotten the whole incident. He’d already learned his lesson; don’t go to school if you feel sick. 

“It isn’t. Not in any capacity.” Mr. Adams frowned, sensing that Peter would much rather not be there; but this had to get sorted. Before he could continue, another figure appeared at the door. “Miss Hilton, come in and sit down please. Shut the door behind you.”

The woman stood there for a moment, her face punched in a forced attempt to look calm. She drew a shaky breath before greeting them as she entered the room. “Good afternoon Principal. Mr. Stark.”

“And Peter, don’t forget Peter.” Tony hummed a small sarcastic smile on his face. He was sat legged resting his arm on the arm of the chair, emulating a casual stance though Peter could see he was irritated. His jaw was clenched and he was bouncing his foot, like he was just waiting to strike.

The woman swallowed. She’d deliberately not looked at the boy as she’d entered the room, though now she was being forced to and she paled. “Good afternoon, Peter.”

“G-good..uh..hi..” Peter practically whispered. He started subconsciously leaning as close to Tony as he possibly could without scooting his chair and he kept glancing back to him for reassurance. Or maybe it was because he was scared the man was going to yell, Tony couldn’t tell. Either way he offered him a slight nod to hopefully calm his nerves some. 

“Miss Hilton I’m sure you know why I’ve called you into my office today.” Mr. Adams said, getting straight down to the point and forgoing any further pleasantries. 

Miss Hilton swallowed, looking nervous for a moment before her expression shifted and she sat up straight in her chair, head held high. She nodded. “Yes sir I do.” 

“Then can you please explain to me why you felt it necessary to refrain from calling this child’s guardian to collect him?”

There was a tense moment of silence as each occupant of the office tried to gauge the tone of the conversation. The atmosphere was heavy, and though Peter pouted at being called a child, he was shifting uncomfortably; Tony studied him worriedly because for a split second he looked like he was going to be sick again. 

Surprisingly the woman stood her ground. Despite the other day looking terrified, she was back to looking how Peter was used to seeing her- self assured and not in a good way. “I saw no indication that he actually felt unwell. I wasn‘t aware that-”

But Tony was not about to let that slide. “Excuse me?” 

“Mr. Stark please let her finish-“ Mr. Adams started, attempting to mediate despite his obvious inclination towards Peter’s side; but Tony was in no mood to play fair. 

“I’m sorry but no, I won’t. I won’t sit here and listen to her lying to cover herself.” Tony stated before he turned his attention back to the woman sitting next to him. “He went to your office during class  _ twice.  _ Both times being sent by a teacher. That was your indication.”

“I meant he didn’t look sick-“ Miss Hilton tried to explain herself, but all she did was enrage the man more. 

“When I came to get him he was grey, visibly sweating and lethargic. I could see he had a fever just by looking at him- even though you didn’t even bother to take his temperature-“ 

“He wouldn’t let me.” The woman interjected- but she promptly shut her mouth when Tony’s eyes blazed; giving her a look that said ‘you’re either really brave or really stupid to interrupt me right now.’

Before Tony could say something to that effect, Principal Adams addressed the youngest in the room; who had dat there intently watching the whole exchange with a look of complete discomfort on his face. “Peter is that true?”

Peter nodded shyly as all eyes fell on him, squirming uncomfortably under their gaze. Did he really need to be there for this? He’d already told Tony everything, besides it was a week ago and he was better now; yeah what Miss Hilton did was mean but-

“Would you after you’d been accused of lying and guilt tripped about your home situation?” Tony said defensively; speaking for him because he knew Peter wouldn’t defend himself. That and he didn’t trust the boy not to wave it off. “Of course he didn’t trust her after she’d used personal information to attack him in such an unprofessional manner.”

“I understand Mr. Stark, I am not excusing her behaviour in the slightest. I'm just trying to get a better picture of what happened. Truly, I’m not trying to justify anything on Miss Hilton’s behalf, I assure you.” Mr. Adams said; though his focus remained on Peter for the time being, as he noticed the child’s face was getting increasingly red. “Peter, is there anything you want to say?”

“Uhhh…” Peter mumbled, looking back and forth at the adults in the room like he was watching a tennis match. “Can I go to the bathroom?”

“Yes, of course you can.” Mr. Adams said, smiling softly as Peter raced from the room. He understood that the boy probably didn’t need the restroom and was just uncomfortable with the atmosphere in the small office- and who could blame him? Had he had the opportunity to run he most definitely would have. He waited for Peter to disappear down the hallway before he cleared his throat. “Right, now that Peter’s gone we can address this as adults. Veronica what the fuck were you thinking?”

Both Tony and  _ Veronica’s _ eyes widened in shock; the latter’s mouth forming a small ‘o’ before she managed to answer the biting question. “E-excuse me?”

“You heard me. Explain yourself, quickly before I write your expulsion letter.” Mr. Adams said with newfound ferocity. “What on earth were you thinking talking to a child like that? Do you have any idea how damaging that could have been? What is wrong with you?” 

Well that..took a turn. Tony couldn’t help but smirk a little. Actually he smirked a lot as he watched the woman’s face turn increasingly red as she grasped desperately for words. 

“I-I-“ She stuttered before taking a minute to compose herself. “Peter has a history of being sick during class.”

“Yes, so I’ve been made aware. Often physically so it seems.” Mr. Adams said as he scrolled through the open tab on his computer. “Vomiting in class, during assembly, in your room quite a few times these records show-“

Tony cringed at the list and so did Miss Hilton, albeit for different reasons. “Yes but-“

“But what? With a track record like this how could you possibly think he was faking it?”

“I mean besides the times that he was genuinely ill there were a few occasions where he was perfectly fine and still had us call his aunt to collect him.” She explained, trying desperately to get her point across but all she did was prove the vendetta she had for him. Peter was one of hundreds of students, and even though he had a rather extensive history, for her to remember all of those incidents showed it was personal. 

“How did you determine that he was ‘perfectly fine’, exactly?” Tony asked sarcastically. 

“He didn’t have a fever-“

“I can assure you he most definitely did. 104 by the time we got home.” Tony growled and the woman’s eyes widened in shock. One may have assumed it was out of genuine concern but Tony was pretty sure she was just upset that she’d been proven wrong once again. “You didn’t even take his temperature so don’t give me that. He has a history of migraines and suspected cyclical vomiting syndrome, and whilst that can raise one's body temperature it often doesn’t. You should be aware of that, what with your  _ medical training _ .” 

“I..I was aware he had migraines.” Miss Hilton said quietly, her face flaming as she was forced to admit she wasn’t aware of his other list of ailments. 

“We added the CVS on his medical forms at the beginning of this academic year. As well as his list of medications- two of which have side effects, including nausea.” Tony reeled off seamlessly. He’d practised that part of his speech in the car on the way over. Even though none of those reasons related to the ear infection that had caused this incident, he wanted to make damn sure if his kid ever felt even the slightest bit sick again he wasn’t questioned. 

“Despite that plentiful list- his past medical history should not have affected your judgement in this case. You still had a duty of care.” Mr. Adams added, his friend deepening everytime Miss Hilton managed to dig herself deeper. 

“I understand. I agree that I should have- I should have believed he was sick when he first came to my office.” She nodded, trying to show some remorse and hopefully bring the room back into her favour but that didn’t work.

“Regardless of that Miss Hilton, even if you did not believe him, you should not have voiced that so directly. That was incredibly inappropriate. That is not your judgement to make, that’s why you should have called his guardian and have them assess whether or not he’s feigning illness to get out of class.”

“May I add something?” Tony asked politely, trying not to smile but watching the woman’s face become more and more forlorn was just too satisfying. Especially after he’d spent a week thinking about it. 

“Of course.”

“Even if he was faking it- which I can assure you he most certainly wasn’t- do you not think that’s a problem in and of itself?” Tony put forward. “Surely you’ve had training on these matters. Avoiding school, there would be a reason for that- bullying for example. If he wanted to get out of class and he was going to such extreme lengths to do so, you should’ve considered that there was a bigger issue. Avoidance is a tactic a lot of children use in times of distress, Peter included, hence why he just ran down the hallway instead of confronting you. You should’ve approached the situation with some tact or maybe a little compassion and understanding.”

There was silence after that for a moment whilst Miss Hilton and Mr. Adams considered that scenario. There really wasn’t anything else to add, so instead the principal asked another question. “Why wouldn’t you try his second contact number?”

The woman sighed. Having finally accepted. the fact that there was no way she could defend herself, she didn’t try to hide the truth. “I thought it was fake.”

“You seem to think a lot of things are fake when it comes to my child.” Tony hummed thoughtfully. 

“I know- I know it seems as though I-“ Miss Hilton stammered again before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath; as though what she was about to say pained her. “I was being unfair, I admit that, but you have to understand that suddenly seeing Mr. Stark’s name on his file after Mrs. Parker being his only contact for so long- I was suspicious. Given my..preconception that he was just trying to avoid class, then seeing- well a celebrity’s name I didn’t..I didn’t know that Peter was of any relation to you-“

“Yes you did.”

“I didn’t-“

“Yes. You did.” Tony repeated slowly. “When you read: ‘Emergency Contact 2: Tony Stark,’ you did. That was when you were made aware. Mr. Adams didn’t know I was Peter's guardian until I showed up here today, but he seems to believe me having not even looked at Peter's file.”

Mr. Adams looked up for a moment, considering Tony’s words and realising that maybe he should’ve checked that before but- well come on, it was  _ Tony Stark.  _ He didn’t think a man like that would lie about a pupil being related to him- besides, he’d made it that far through the school surely  _ someone  _ had gone through safeguarding checks. But he had a feeling Tony could get away with a lot of things without having to prove his relevance. 

“You have to understand why I didn’t-“

“ _ I  _ don’t  _ have  _ to do anything, Miss Hilton, I don’t think you understand that.” Tony snarled, not raising his voice but he didn’t have to. The woman practically cowered. “You absolutely humiliated my son when he was suffering enough as it was.”

Son. 

Whoops.

Oh well, it certainly got the desired effect, the woman’s face paled and she quickly shut her jaw. 

“I’m..I’m sorry.” Her eyes looked shiny and for a second Tony felt bad- but it was fleeting. Usually making a woman cry would feel horrible but after what she did to Peter? Nah. He wasn’t known for being forgiving at the best of times but especially not to those who had wronged his kid. She certainly wasn’t crying after all the times she made Peter feel like shit for being sick. 

“You shouldn’t be apologising to me.” Tony growled. “You should be apologising to him.” 

He pointed to the window where just barely peeking around the corner was Peter, trying desperately to stay out of view. Even from the distance it was still painfully obvious to all the adults that he was waiting for it all to go away. Rather than allow that to happen without retribution Tony went to go get him, lest the whole ordeal be for naught. 

“Do I have to go back in..?” Peter almost groaned when Tony came out of the doorway. 

Tony’s expression softened. He was still furious beyond belief but now that the issue was with the correct authority (and said authority seemed to be very much on their side) he felt they could wrap things up; if only not to prolong the process for Peter. He felt kind of guilty springing it on the kid at the last minute, but had he prepared the boy ahead of time he knew he’d have found a way of getting out of it. Hell maybe he would’ve  _ pretended to be sick.  _

But even Tony had to admit seeing Peter so uncomfortable certainly made the whole thing a lot less satisfying, even if it was for his benefit. “Come on bud. Miss Hilton has something she needs to say.”

Begrudgingly Peter followed Tony back into the office, only this time he raced to sit in the chair at the furthest corner of the room as opposed to in the centre where he’d once been. He sank down in his seat and tried his best to sink into the leather, his face positively flaming when he was addressed once again; though this time Miss Hilton was the one to speak first. 

“Hello Peter.”

“H-hello Miss- Miss-“ Peter tried to greet her back but he was stuttering too badly. It made Tony cringe but at least it was a testament to just how shy the boy really was. After a moment Peter managed to blurt out; “I’m sorry I got you in trouble.”

All three adults stared at him with varying looks of ‘Dude, no’; Peter having totally missed the point. 

Tony had half expected it, but Mr. Adams looked the most confused by the conclusion Peter had jumped too. “Peter that’s not-“

“Peter no.” Miss Hilton interjected, her tone surprisingly apologetic. Peter jumped more at her softer voice than he had at her harsh one. “You didn’t get me in trouble. I did. It..it wasn’t fair what I said- or what I did. I should’ve called your dad when you asked me to instead of-“

“He’s not-“ Peter started, before he changed his mind about correcting her. “He’s not always reachable at work anyway- a-and I get why you didn’t believe me.” He chuckled shakily. “It’s not every day you see Tony Stark- well I mean it kinda is for me but uh- well you didn’t know that.”

“It’s not an excuse Peter. Even before that I shouldn’t have..I shouldn’t have accused you the way I did. I should’ve believed that you didn’t feel well.” The woman said quietly. She sounded sincere, Tony had to give her that, though the skeptical side of him wasn’t sure if she was actually remorseful for Peter’s sake or the sake of her career. He lent towards the latter until she quietly tacked on; “I’m sorry Peter.”

“I-it’s okay, ma’am.” Peter said, automatically accepting the apology. Not only had he been raised to do so, he also just wanted the whole ordeal to be over. He’d forgiven the woman a week ago once the antibiotics kicked in and he stopped feeling like he was on a boat- he wasn’t one to hold a grudge. That and he was pretty sure most people wouldn’t have believed their eyes until Tony was standing in front of them either. 

But that was only half of the issue, even Miss Hilton now recognised that. “No it isn’t-“

“You’re right, it isn’t, I’m glad you understand that.” Tony interjected with a smile. He rose from his seat, Peter immediately jumping up to follow him. “Right well, we got your apology P, let’s go home.”

“Yay.” Peter sighed with relief as he scrambled up, hand already on the door handle before anyone else could try and continue the conversation. 

Miss Hilton looked relieved too, if not surprised that the meeting was already over. “Is- is that it?”

Tony’s expression soured again. How she had the audacity to look relieved he didn’t know, but he was sure to promptly wipe that look from her face. “Oh for you? No, no chance in hell. But for Peter it is. I think he’s been through enough, don't you?” 

Miss Hilton hung her head solemnly and said nothing else. She kept her head down even once Mr. Adams cleared his throat. “Mr. Stark before you leave I’d like for you and Peter to both fill out-“ 

“An incident report? Here you go, sir.” Tony smiled, instantly producing an envelope from his pocket that had been burning a hole for the past seven days. “Mr. Stevens, Edward Leeds and Michelle Jones each have one for you too if these don’t suffice.”

Mr. Adams nodded. “I’m sure this will be plenty.”

The pair shook hands briefly before Tony replaced his hands on Peter’s shoulders, ready to steer the boy out of there. “Thank you for seeing us today Principle Adams, you’ve been most accommodating. I apologise for arriving unannounced.”

“Please, anytime Mr. Stark, and again I offer my sincerest apologies.” Mr. Adams said with a sad smile. “And Peter, if you ever have any problems please don’t hesitate to come and see me, okay?”

Peter nodded shyly but couldn’t bring himself to say anything else. He was just ready to get the hell out of there. 

“Thanks again.” Tony smiled, leading Peter out of the room. But he couldn’t resist one last wink at the woman still sitting in the chair. “See you later, Veronica.”

Peter stayed mostly silent as the pair exited the school. It wasn’t until they were nearing the gates that he scowled at his mentor. “Mr. Stark, did you  _ have  _ to do that?”

“Yes, yes I did.” Tony hummed quietly. He’d known Peter was opposed to it from the start; he’d literally begged Tony not to get the woman fired and even after that he’d tried to convince him to leave the situation alone. But this was the kid that would never let anyone do anything for him- so yes Tony did have to do something, even if it was just to show the kid that he was worth kicking up a fuss over. It was hardly unwarranted. Still, Peter remained unconvinced. 

“Why?” Peter huffed with a whine. 

“Because if I didn’t Nat was gonna go and set her house on fire, which would you have preferred?”

That shut Peter up. And so did the ice cream on the way home. After everything Tony figured he deserved it. 


End file.
